Thread: Pesticide spraying

Just starting to get into spraying for weeds at large apartment complexes and I am trying to figure out how much to charge. I have heard that I should charge $12-15 per 1000 square feet, does this sound right. I cover the western portion of Oklahoma, from Oklahoma City west. The complexes will average from 40000 sq feet up to several acres. Any help in pricing would be great!

Good luck. All I can say is you should figure time + materials. I don't know what the market like is in your area. You would be broke at $10 per 1000 here. Larger properties also get a discount on price foe size

Some companies charge a fixed fee for overhead and drive time. Then your usual labor charge per hour plus chemical cost per thousand sqft. $30 per hour. If your worker is a high school graduate, more, if you have to sweat, more yet, if licensed you are are skilled labor--double that.

ArizPestWeed, the complexes that I am talking about just want a one time treatment and like I said earlier, they are fairly large. Some may want an additional treatment later on when the sandburs come up, but I am mainly just talking about a onetime spraying. They only budget one spraying a year. I am targeting commercial areas with larger areas to mow instead of residential homes in my mowing, and they are requesting this spraying..

I can't imagine getting $12-15/1000. I'm just east of OKC and it's pretty competitive. But, on large properties, schools, commercial, and apartments, $6/1000/app on pre/post control is tops around here. In the last year, I've got a couple bids at $5/1000 and barely outbid the other companies. I lost out on a 30 acre x 3 apps. I was at around $3.50/1000 and got outbid by several thousand dollars.

The point I'm making is don't bite the hand that feeds you. If you already have the mowing and they want to add weed control, don't be to high or they may go looking for other bids for spraying and mowing.

Great advice AnotherOkie! The more I look around here and ask questions the more I see that your prices are closer to reality than the ones that I first heard. I was looking at some equipment in Amarillo and asked the owner of the store what people were charging, he said the 12-15/ 1000, seems more like 6-7 around here.

You are also correct on not biting the hand that feeds me, great advice. Thanks a lot!